Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to expand on the point I am trying to make. If the young people who learn this language from the age of five to the age of 18 were dropped into the relevant parts of County Galway or another Gaeltacht county, the vast majority of them could not hold the most basic conversation with their counterparts who live in the Gaeltacht and speak the language on a daily basis. In such circumstances, a fundamental re-examination of why and how we teach Irish in our schools is needed. I agree with the Deputy that there is significant demand for all-Irish provision. Anecdotal evidence to this effect is emerging from parents in my county. The Deputy mentioned that up to 600 young people are on a waiting list to access a Gaelscoil in his locality. It is important to note that the parents and children presumably went to school elsewhere. The Deputy may be quite correct when he suggests that a strong desire on the part of parents to have their children educated in an all-Irish medium is emerging. They have the right to demand such provision in an English-medium school. If sufficient demand of this kind emerges from within the parent community of any English-medium school in the country, there is no reason that school cannot deliver all of its subjects through the medium of Irish in junior infants, senior infants, first class and second class. That opportunity has always existed in our school system. It remains within our school system.

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